MoMA Tear-Down

Architects Blast Museum Plan to Raze Former Folk-Art Home

By

Jennifer Maloney

April 11, 2013 10:50 p.m. ET

The architects of a former museum to be demolished by the Museum of Modern Art lashed out Thursday, criticizing MoMA officials for deciding to destroy, rather than preserve, a young and unusual work of architecture.

MoMA announced plans Wednesday to raze the former home of the American Folk Art Museum, a six-story building on West 53rd Street adjacent to MoMA that opened in 2001 to critical acclaim and was purchased by MoMA in 2011. Museum officials said the folk-art building wasn't compatible with their plans to connect MoMA's main building to galleries in a planned tower on the other side of the folk-art site.

ENLARGE

The exterior of the former American Folk Art Museum.
Andrew Hinderaker for The Wall Street Journal

On Thursday, architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien said the museum's decision ran contrary to the principles of sustainability, and to the museum's own mission of celebrating and preserving modern and contemporary art, including architecture and design.

"It is a small building that has a presence beyond its footprint in New York City," said Ms. Tsien, whose projects with Mr. Williams include the new Barnes Foundation building in Philadelphia and the Asia Society Hong Kong Center, which opened in 2011.

The folk-art building, which cost $18.4 million to build, was designed to be small and particular "at a time when institutions generally are becoming larger and larger and less particular," she said.

"When we were approached by the American Folk Art Museum to purchase their building, we entered into the process with an open mind," he said in an email. "However, it was also with the understanding that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to integrate a building that was designed for a very specific purpose and as a discrete structure with the Museum's plans for expansion."

"The decision was based not on architectural merit, but on the need to ensure a viable program for the Museum in the future," Mr. Lowry added.

MoMA says it expects to tear down the folk-art building by the end of the year.

When the folk-art building opened 12 years ago, its quirky, contemporary design enchanted critics, who called it "bighearted" and "jazzlike."

Its facade, clad in panels of bronze alloy, contrasted with MoMA's glass front—one reason MoMA officials have said it wasn't compatible with their expansion plans.

Museum officials also have said the folk-art building's floors wouldn't line up with those of the MoMA building. But Mr. Williams said one floor of galleries could have lined up with MoMA's. Museum officials didn't solicit the architects' input on how the buildings could have fit together, Mr. Williams said.

MoMA officials, who are looking to hire an architect for the addition on the folk-art site, have said they expected the new structure to contain 10,000 square feet of gallery space.

"I believe they bought this building to tear it down," Mr. Williams said. "Clearly, we're devastated by it."

The American Folk Art Museum sold its building to MoMA in 2011 after defaulting on nearly $32 million in bond debt. The smaller museum now presents exhibitions and public programs at Lincoln Square, a gallery space near Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and collaborates with other institutions, including the South Street Seaport Museum.

The trustees and staff of the American Folk Art Museum said in a statement posted Thursday on the museum's website that they were "deeply sympathetic to our friends Billie Tsien and Tod Williams as they face the destruction of a building of which we were all proud."

But, calling MoMA "our good neighbor," they said they remained grateful for MoMA's purchase of the building, which they called "a necessary step for our resurgence."

The destruction of such a young building in Manhattan is unusual, architecture experts said.

"Given the history and the public aspect and the integrity of the architects, it's a very short time," said Paul Gunther, president of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, in New York.

He described the building as "designed by very important architects, whose influence has only grown."

The architects said the structure was designed to have a long life. "A hundred years at least," Mr. Williams said.

MoMA has released few details on its plans for the structure to replace the folk-art building. The expansion is expected to be the final piece of an expanded MoMA campus, ultimately to consist of five buildings, four of them on West 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, officials said.

The 72-story tower planned next door, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, is being developed by Hines, a firm based in Houston. It will include condominiums as well as 40,000 square feet of gallery space for the museum, a MoMA spokeswoman said.

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